These boxers won't be brief...

No...this isn't Weasley, but it looks like him and his work.  I couldn't resist when I saw this "LOLCAT" on the Internet.  I hope everyone in the hurricane-affected area is OK after their long weekend of watching the weather.  I've lived in a hurricane zone, so my heart goes out to all of you dealing with high water, wind damage, loss of power, and all inconveniences related to these things.

Well, I fought the urge to title this post "I've had my hands in my husband's underwear..." or something like that.  I've been making some preliminary doodles concerning the appliques I want to do for "Boxer Rebellion" to blend with the blocks pieced from the actual fabric from the boxers.  I'm still not happy with arms and hands...Mr. Fabric Therapy thinks I'm spot on concerning his head, though (giggle).  I wish I had had nothing to do this weekend so I could have devoted FULL ATTENTION to this project.

After dissecting the shorts, I can tell you there is PLENTY of fabric to work with...if he had worn extra large undies, I might have had enough for a king-size quilt!  So, Tonya and Bonnie...I challenge you to use boxers in your projects along with the old shirts!  Now I need to finalize the applique drawings, make a decision about the pieced block design, and find just the right skin color fabric to match my pasty white mid west husband's skin tone.  Thank you for all your funny (and serious!) suggestions for which block(s) to use!  I really enjoyed reading your comments.

I have to say my husband has been a good sport.  If pictures of MY underwear had shown up on the Internet (even on an obscure quilt blog), there would have been a murder by now...he likes that my doodles have no facial features except for the glasses.  As he would say, "this could be ANY naked, balding, middle-aged geek..."

Meanwhile, my magic box containing my little hand applique basket blocks is almost empty...I'm stitching on the last prepped block!

I had to prepare some more...too many meetings coming up in the next couple of weeks, and I manage to stitch at least one a day when I am waiting to pick up the teenagers after school.  It was time to dip into my red reproduction fabrics.

I have about 15-16 freezer paper patterns that I work with.  I iron them on the FRONT of the fabric, cut them out leaving a small margin, and use the paper as a guide to glue the margin to the back with a glue stick and a pointy tool (I like my long, Clover stiletto).  (If you want more detail, there's a tutorial about glue stick applique on my top tool bar.)

After the gluing (and much pressing with my fingers), I peel off the freezer paper off to use again.  I use these over and over again until they won't stick any more when ironed to fabric.  Then I will chuck them and trace some more using my plastic template that I traced from the book "When the Cold Wind Blows" by Blackbird Designs.  My friend Susi of Susi's Quilts is making another quilt from this book...you should check it out!

Now to put the baskets together, then glue baste them to backgrounds...

I glue baste the handle to the basket first before going to the backgrounds.  I work right over my paper pattern.

I place the basket handle on the pattern first.  Then I place pattern weights on the handle to keep things from shifting around while I glue.  It takes very little Roxanne's Glue Baste to hold things...always think "dot-dot-not-a-lot."  Never glue right at the edge of a piece where you will be making stitches!

See my little dots?  Excess glue is messy, wasteful, and harder to soak out later after stitching the block.  It may not seem like a little dot will hold, but this works remarkably well (I hate stitching around pins!).

I carefully place the basket on the handle and press.  I use my beading tweezers to move pieces around because my fingers are a little clumsy.  I press just long enough to hold things together then carefully run the tweezers underneath it all to make sure I have not glued the whole mess to the paper.  It you are frugal with your glue, you won't have this problem.

Obviously, I have a little trimming to do (I'd rather err on having too much to tuck under than not enough...).

Now I can start stitching red baskets!  I was getting a little bored with the green ones.  I still have some more red fabrics to cut baskets from, but this will hold me for a little while.

FINALLY some quilt-related humor in the New Yorker...(is this the new rotary cutter??).

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)